These are The Remaining OPEC Members After Angola’s Exit

Angola announced this week that it’s quitting OPEC after 16 years of membership amid a dispute over oil production quotas.

Angola’s exit will shrink members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to 12 nations at a time when it’s struggling to shore up prices, which have fallen almost 20% in the past three months.

Brent crude futures initially sank 2.4% on the news, but then recouped some losses to trade near $79 a barrel.

Angola’s output has collapsed about 40% over the past eight years to around 1.14 million barrels a day as it fails to invest sufficiently in aging, Deepwater oil fields.

History of OPEC

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was founded in Baghdad, Iraq, with the signing of an agreement in September 1960 by five countries namely Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. They were to become the Founder Members of the Organization.

These countries were later joined by Qatar (1961), Indonesia (1962), Libya (1962), the United Arab Emirates (1967), Algeria (1969), Nigeria (1971), Ecuador (1973), Gabon (1975), Angola (2007), Equatorial Guinea (2017) and Congo (2018).

Ecuador suspended its membership in December 1992, rejoined OPEC in October 2007, but decided to withdraw its membership of OPEC effective 1 January 2020. Indonesia suspended its membership in January 2009, reactivated it again in January 2016, but decided to suspend its membership once more at the 171^st Meeting of the OPEC Conference on 30 November 2016. Gabon terminated its membership in January 1995.

However, it rejoined the Organization in July 2016. Qatar terminated its membership on 1 January 2019.

OPEC members today

Currently, the Organization has a total of 12 Member Countries.

These are: Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Libya, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Nigeria, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Congo.

The OPEC Statute distinguishes between the Founder Members and Full Members – those countries whose applications for membership have been accepted by the Conference.

The Statute stipulates that “any country with a substantial net export of crude petroleum, which has fundamentally similar interests to those of Member Countries, may become a Full Member of the Organization, if accepted by a majority of three-fourths of Full Members, including the concurring votes of all Founder Members.”

OPECs diminishing power

Non-OPEC liquids production in 2023 is expected to grow by 1.8 mb/d, y-o-y, reaching 67.6 mb/d.

Meanwhile, OPEC-13 (before Angola’s exit) crude oil production in November decreased by 57 tb/d, m-o-m, to average 27.84 mb/d, according to available secondary sources.

This means that OPEC members produced only 30% of daily global oil supplies in 2023, a number that is set to slide following Angola’s exit.

US crude and condensate production as well as NGL output continue to reach new highs in 2023.

Total US liquids output reached a record 21.6 mb/d in September due to persistent outperformance of onshore and offshore production.

Accordingly, US liquids supply growth for 2023 is forecast at 1.3 mb/d. In addition to the US, the other main growth drivers for 2023 are expected to be Brazil, Kazakhstan, Norway, Guyana, Mexico and China.

Non-OPEC liquids production in 2024 is forecast to grow by 1.4 mb/d to average 69.0 mb/d (including 50 tb/d in processing gains). The main drivers for the expected growth are the US, Canada, Guyana, Brazil, Norway and Kazakhstan.

In addition to the US shale basins, accounting for about 48% of expected non-OPEC liquids supply growth, offshore project ramp-ups are expected to substantially support growth next year.

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